by ·Comments Off on The Jerk (1979, Carl Reiner)

Steve Martin, grey-haired at 33, is raised by a Black family in Mississippi (mom from Ganja & Hess, dad from Across 110th Street) until one day he hears white music on the radio and goes to St. Louis to find its source. He gets hired by Jackie Mason at a gas station until madman M. Emmet of Blood Simple chases him into a traveling circus, where he’s taken home by the daredevil (Catlin Adams, later a director who discovered Ben Affleck). He meets cornet player Bernadette Peters and they move out west, getting rich off his glasses invention until sued by crosseyed Carl Reiner. Homeless, he tells his story to the movie camera, then is immediately reunited with his family.

Not a rapid-fire gag machine, but a few of the jokes are extremely good, including a couple of extended Martin routines: one about the precise math of “days feel longer when we’re together,” and one mopily collecting objects from the house after losing his fortune, leading to the poster image. Steve and Bernadette are cute together, and would costar in the even better Pennies From Heaven. The director of Car Wash made a Martin-less sequel to this, which nobody has ever watched.

by ·Comments Off on The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976, Clint Eastwood)

Clint was just innocently farming when some assholes come along, steal his wife, murder his kid and burn down his house. Cue a training montage! The assholes are a murderous rogue group in the union army, so Clint joins the confederates. Cue a war montage! The last of the confederates surrender when the war is over, and while pledging their loyalty to the revived union they’re all gunned down. Clint sees this, chain-guns 100 unioners, and goes on the run.

“After I get to likin’ someone they ain’t around long.” A dumb blunt movie, Clint now wandering the earth, gathering traveling companions (wide-eyed Sandra Locke, doomed kid, The Chief), tending to arrive at some conflict or another just in time to dispense cold justice. Clint’s fifth movie as director, and the earliest I’ve seen by a decade. Confed troop leader Fletcher (Killer Klowns From Outer Space) is allowed to live, Evil Unioner Terrill (Deliverance rapist typecast as a violent hillbilly) killed on his own sword.

by ·Comments Off on Three 1976 Shorts with Unpromising Titles

Table (Ernie Gehr)

Flicker film of a table setting, with a teapot and some cups and saucers, maybe some scissors back there. A shot from one angle in red light, another shot slightly offset in blue light, a third in white, giving the impression of a 3D movie gone haywire in editing, or a preview of late-period Ken Jacobs. Watched this as the director intended (a video copy at home, which was seemingly rephotographed off a film projection, while listening to Makaya McCraven in the headphones).

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Window (Stan Brakhage)

Stan aims his camera at/through a window for ten minutes. Unfortunately for the haters, this is incredible, because Stan is able to aim his camera at/through objects until they reveal their spirits inside.

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Leisure (Bruce Petty)

“Everybody expressing themselves simultaneously was causing tension and blood pressure… work had been planned for, and leisure had not.” See, this is why I sketch out the month’s moviewatching in advance, to lower the blood pressure. “Plans were laid to get fitness into offices, design into chairs.” Very jumbled and busy, by design. Pencil sketches meets cutup animation, the narrator sounding like he’s advertising to us.

by ·Comments Off on The Private Eyes (1976, Michael Hui)

A pretty poor movie to split up and watch across two nights. The first half is pure episodic comedy, vaguely setting up the characters and detective agency (very good!) and the second is episodic plotty stuff, the guys working somewhat-together to solve cases and/or foil a big robbery they accidentally got in the middle of (pretty average!). So after tonight’s mid-70s grey/brown adventures, trying to hold on to the laughs from the night before.

Neckbrace Ricky costarred in Mr. Vampire, kung-fu Sam starred in Tsui Hark’s Swordsman, and detective Michael (also of Chinese Box) was known as Hong Kong’s lead comedy director until Stephen Chow showed up. Sean Gilman says The Contract is better, but it’s 1976 Week, so that one’ll have to wait a couple years.

by ·Comments Off on Trás-os-Montes (1976, Cordeiro & Reis)

A near-doc, near-drama with flights of fantasy, it must’ve looked like a whole new thing at the time. Luis and Armando pass some ladies at a mysterious cave and end up traveling seven generations into the future. A silent episode, serving snow for dinner. Too much with the rural rhythms, but quite beautiful, even in my TV copy.

Cordeiro and Reis were a married couple who made three features together set in this region of Portugal, which is convenient for film viewers who are obsessed with trilogies. Not shockingly, the cinematographer also worked on Monteiro and Ruiz films, and Paulo Branco produced.

by ·Comments Off on A Well-Spent Life (1972, Les Blank)

Why did I have this listed as A Life Well Spent? Hangout doc with blues guitarist Mance Lipscomb. There’s a rock doc out there for everyone who ever picked up a guitar, and most are in the style of the Beatles or the Devo things, but we need more that are like this.

by ·Comments Off on Real Life (1979, Albert Brooks)

Brooks-as-himself tells the people of Phoenix he’s capturing real life, so not to play up for the camera while his crew films the Charles Grodin family going about their daily business. His psychologists turn against him, Brooks makes everything about himself as usual, and finally burns Grodin’s house down to create drama for his film. Brooks imploding for 90 minutes is a little tedious – fortunately the movie is saved by the camera-headed people, who are funny every single time I see them.

Dave Kehr:

With its deliberate avoidance of punch lines and insistent drift into darkness and disaster, Albert Brooks’s 1979 film left audiences baffled when first released. It now seems like one of the most innovative comedies of the decade, suggesting a hundred different ways in which movie comedy could escape the gag-heavy, character-destroying styles imposed by television (if only it wanted to).

by ·Comments Off on Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (1978, Chen Chi-Hwa)

Love the jesus christ superstar joke in the credits. Good cartoony music. Jackie fights a guy called King Kong in a henhouse; there is bird tossing. Popeye jokes, dream sequences, overall a very silly movie, the comedy/action ratio outta whack. Hundreds of actors in this, including James Tien, a Dragon Inn guy, and some Flying Guillotine veterans.

Heroes?

Birdie:

by ·Comments Off on Everybody Rides the Carousel (1976, John & Faith Hubley)

Wasn’t expecting this to start with a baby’s-eye-view of being born. Movie is like “human values for beginners” – a highlight is a date on a rowboat where the participants’ apparent age changes with each line they say. The Hubleys are good at using natural dialogue and finding unusual angles and perspectives, and great at body and facial poses. Based on the work of a famed psychologist, this was the feature film debut of both Georgia Hubley and Meryl Streep.